Trying to ID a song, driving me nuts...

aare

Ok, after 10 years or trying, I am finally driven to consult the oracles of boards in this one.

The sound was around in 1987 or earlier. The band was probably something like Cry before dawn or Azlan or similar...haunting melody, possibly unplugged (or would sound well that way).

I have three snatches of lyrics:

"The river runs too deep" (definate)
"I sell/sold my soul too cheap" (definate)
"These are the days" (probable)

Can anybody ID this?

Dudess

1988 actually. The Adventures - Broken Land http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures

Yes indeed, there was a plethora of earnest-sounding Irish bands emerging at the time - Aslan and Cry Before Dawn, as you mentioned, being the obvious ones. And there was also Light A Big Fire. Maybe they had aspirations to do a U2 or a Simple Minds (or even a Big Country) and sell out stadia with their "big", epic anthems. The Waterboys were no doubt an inspiration too - God, all of that really evokes memories of a grim, grey Ireland on its knees economically, in the grip of the catholic church and devoid of twenty-somethings (all headed to London and the U.S.) as well as lots of paisley shirts and pony-tails on guys - shudder! And didn't Brian Kennedy have a group called The Black Velvet Band around that time?

But anyway, enough of my... erm... reminiscing - Broken Land is a fantastic song. I remember it getting tons of airplay on The Beatbox (with Barry Lang) and Rock Sundown (whenever I was allowed to stay up for it).
YouTube only has a clip of it rather than the full vid (due to copyright restrictions)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cWp0iSJiwU
Top-notch tune.

aare

Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!

This is an even better moment than the one when Swiss guy in Berne put U2's "Gloria" on the CD deck, thus reassuring me that I had been right (and not, as suggested, mildly psychotic) when half the Northside repeatedly assured me NO SUCH SONG existed.

Now you remind me, I suppose you could call it the time of the BIG boy ballads?

It was a grim time...but my memories of the time are not so grim at all...I used to do a lot of driving around the country at that time in a car you would be arrested for taking near an NCT centre now...but then everybody did.

It's AMAZING to hear it for real after all these years of only hearing it in my memory...but did ALL guys REALLY look such twonkers then?? And if so...why ON EARTH was I so crazy about 3 or 4 of them?

Dudess

That's interesting about U2's Gloria, because even though I am aware of the song, I don't think I've ever heard it. Bizarre.
Ah yes, the cars. My dad got a new car at the end of '88 and wanted to have an '89 reg so he left it sitting in the driveway and hired a Fiat Ritmo until December 31 which was actually frightening to sit into. Bits would be falling off as he drove. Ah, innocent days!
I was only ten at the time so my crushes were on really harmless looking guys like Jason and Bros (although they look to me like Hitler youths now :eek:) so The Adventures would have been too brooding for me back then. I don't know though, don't be hard on yourself, despite the horror of their clothes they are pretty fine. The lead singer - whew! Hottie!

aare

Yeah but, while we cannot control the looks we are born with (YES!! HOT!! HOW ON EARTH did I forget him? ), we CAN control how we dress them...

I had an '81 Fiat Mirafiori (the color was a weird cross between lilac and battleship grey), that distinguished itself right after purchase (from an auction in Mayo for £150) by requiring an emergency "while u wait" saturday afternoon engine rebuild by a well known and loved mechanic behind Rathmines Gardai, because, otherwise, I was stranded 150 miles from home...the bodywork was totally rust and waterproof...as insulating tape usually is...

"Gloria" was very like "New Year's day", it's floating around a lot in cyberspace these days...I doubt if it is VERY illegal to download it for one quick listen?

( I DID NOT make it up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_(U2_song) )

Wertz

God I used to love that song, not heard it in an age. Where has talent like this on the Irish music scene gone to?

Dudess

It vanished in a blur of blandness and The Stunning.

Yeah, it's a fantastic song. Even the fiddly-diddly "oirish" bits at the end work well.

aare, my dad's Fiat was that very colour strangely enough. Oh I know Gloria exists but it never gets played. I don't think I'd recognise it if I heard it.

The Adventures were from Belfast. It's a very poignant song. Wonder whether they're singing about the Troubles or is that too obvious? Ah, they surely were. That's something else I associate with the time. Things were particularly bad up there. Enniskillen was in late 1987 and there were the Gibraltar shootings in 1988 which led to lots more carnage. And all the while that **** in Downing Street was making it her business to deepen the gulf rather than bridge it.
Anyway, this is the Music forum, not Politics, so sorry about the tangent!

aare

It was "that kind of time" when "the troubles" wound up almost romanticised (along with a certain amount of "crime in general") in popular culture, as a kind of backhanded escapism from the everyday "fiat colored" (the Italians have SUCH STYLE...how come they always scr*w up the Fiats?) hopelessness.

Which, of course reflected in the music of the time.

It is amazing how music can take you back...almost like a Tardis (and yep when I first heard THAT one again on TV there was a lump in my throat, than NEARLY escaped).

Funnily enough, "Gloria" dominated the Dublin airwaves (at the time, I think there was one pirate station per head of population) in the run up to Christmas 1980 when "Wish I was at Home For Xmas" took over...and then it vanished...

Maybe it was just too similar to "New Years Day" so that both could not be remembered?

Dudess

It seems to be true all right that bad times breed great music. Acid house was kicking in over in the UK at the time - a revolt against the selfishness of thatcherism, and a ****-you to her "no such thing as society"/the-individual-is-king nonsense. In the late 70s the British economy was in a mess, then in the early 80s there were race riots, yet the music! Punk, post-punk, ska, new romantic...
We have it so good now that everything is just packaged, generic and bland.

aare

...except for passion...(which is what drove "Broken Land" and similar, while we girls sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "I could be so lucky"...oh well, I like to think we have come a long way since then...:rolleyes: )

That will NEVER be "packaged, generic and bland"...;)

I am a big trance and techno head...apart from which, I know what I like and haven't got a clue what is in the charts, but I do notice a lot of blatantly sexual music around of late.

Almost as if sex has taken the place of passion and love in popular culture...

Which would be really sad...

Dudess

The music channel Kiss churns out nothing but tits and ass vids - so cynical and cold. It depresses me.

Latchy

Almost as if sex has taken the place of passion and love in popular culture...

Which would be really sad...

You are so right , in previous generations every other song in the chart was a romantic tune or ballad ,the 70s had some great romantic songs ....

ShawnRaven

All this time people are talking about 80s Irish bands, yet nobody has mentioned Cactus World News?! For Shame, people! SHAME!

VR!

Latchy

All this time people are talking about 80s Irish bands, yet nobody has mentioned Cactus World News?! For Shame, people! SHAME!

Whatever hapened to them ? i remember the drummer was bald ,and the lead singer was a little weedy guy with glass's who always looked ill ...also anybody remember Dc-Nine , Loookalikes , X-Entrics , all from around the early 80s ?

grumpytrousers

Another cracking tune from that time, or rather two, would be

"Town to Town" and
"Singers Hampstead Home" by Microdisney. They never really fell into the 'we-want-to-be-U2' bracket, for my money those two songs alone pi$$ over nearly anything Bongo et al ever put their names to...

ShawnRaven

latchyco wrote:

Whatever hapened to them ? i remember the drummer was bald ,and the lead singer was a little weedy guy with glass's who always looked ill ...also anybody remember Dc-Nine , Loookalikes , X-Entrics , all from around the early 80s ?

Frank Kearns is in Howth and making a mint on Guitar lessons.
They basically disbanded. In 89, No Shelter, the second album was shelved at very last minute after they were dropped from their record label. It eventually surfaced on their website in 2004, and on iTunes six months afterwards. Half the band left and were substituted with session musicians releasing "Don't Let Me Down" in 1990 before throwing in the towel.

No Shelter isn't a great album by any stretch of the imagination. But Urban Beaches is still pretty decent even by todays standards.

Out of that list i remember the Lookalikes. Mainly because frontman Eamo Doyle, left them to join Aslan to replace Christy in 1988 after he was fired. They did two singles with him, Don't Make Me Cry Again and Strange Love, both were absolutely dire. The former track eventually made it on the Platinum Collection as a demo with Christy on vocals.

VR!

Latchy

Chers VC , i remember that period in irish local music scene quite well .I used to go to McGonegels and the baggot inn a lot back then.

Another favorite of mine was Stepaside ....i know they have their own website and still going strong under Paul Ashford .

DerekD Goldfish

grumpytrousers wrote:

Another cracking tune from that time, or rather two, would be

"Town to Town" and
"Singers Hampstead Home" by Microdisney. They never really fell into the 'we-want-to-be-U2' bracket, for my money those two songs alone pi$$ over nearly anything Bongo et al ever put their names to...

Microdisney were indeed great(although I prefer Fatima Mansions)
manages to track down most MD and FM stuff fairly cheaply although its not easy to find and did pay €40 for a Japanese version of Clock Comes Down the stairs
Although musically the best Band Ireland ever produced was MBV(Depending how Irish you consider them) and whipping boy released the best Irish album in "Heartworm" Cathal Coughlan Microdisney/Fatima Mansion frontman is IMO Ireland's best lyricist.

ShawnRaven

latchyco wrote:

Chers VC , i remember that period in irish local music scene quite well .I used to go to McGonegels and the baggot inn a lot back then..

Ah McGonagles on South Anne St! I only caught the tail end of that scene in 91, early 92 before it closed for good. Nowhere in Dublin has still to beat that place. It was cold, damp, dingy and a limited bar, but it had some great Metal nights. I still miss it to this day.

I remember there was an attempt to relaunch it in January 93 as well. About 20 people turned up so needless to say, it was scrapped. Before reopening one year later as System before being declared an unsafe building and torn down and rebuilt

VR!

ShawnRaven

DerekD Goldfish wrote:

whipping boy released the best Irish album in "Heartworm"

An album that has aged quite well after 12 years since it's release. Still holds up well to this day

VR!

Latchy

Quote =validreasoning!]Ah McGonagles on South Anne St! I only caught the tail end of that scene in 91, early 92 before it closed for good. Nowhere in Dublin has still to beat that place. It was cold, damp, dingy and a limited bar, but it had some great Metal nights. I still miss it to this day.

I remember there was an attempt to relaunch it in January 93 as well. About 20 people turned up so needless to say, it was scrapped. Before reopening one year later as System before being declared an unsafe building and torn down and rebuilt

VR!

Before it was Mcgonagles it was know as the crystel disco and it was not until the mid to late 70s when punk and new wave was happenning , that it opened up to live music.I seen quite a few uk and irish bands there back then ,XTC was one, and quite a few others who names i cant remember .Also Bob Geldof showed up one night (before he got his sainthood ) but seem to remember him scurrying back and forth across the floor trying to avoid anybody who might approach him .... lol, good days

Dudess

Cactus World News were more indie than Cry Before Dawn, Aslan etc. I remember them, but not their music. Paranoid Visions were around then too weren't they?
Fatima Mansions were brilliant - I remember taping my mate's 12" of Only Losers Take The Bus back in 1991. Fantastic song. I love the way Cathal Coughlan was as un-Cork as you could get (I'm from there too, it can be a tad insular at times ).
Into Paradise - they were brilliant.
I remember Fanning used to regularly mention great gigs in McGonagles in 91/92 and I longed so much to go there, but I was 13 or 14 and in Cork, so no luck there.